Steve Breen Wins Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition

By: E&P Staff San Diego Union-Tribune editorial cartoonist Steve Breen is this year?s winner of the John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition.

Breen?s winning entry for the Fischetti Award was a caricature of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with the Twitter bird mascot perched atop his head, making a mess of his turban. It captures the spirit of the Iranian government trying unsuccessfully to subvert Internet communications documenting last year?s public uprisings.

The annual competition, started in 1980 by Columbia College Chicago, is held in honor of legendary editorial political cartoonist John Fischetti.

Breen, who is syndicated by Creators News Service, has been the San Diego Union-Tribune?s editorial cartoonist since 2001. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and also holds to his credit a Berryman Award for editorial cartooning from the National Press Foundation (2007), the 2009 Thomas Nast Award from The Overseas Press Club, and The Press Club of Atlantic City?s 2009 National Headliner Award.

"It's really nice, especially in this day and age," Breen told Michael Cavna at the Washington Post?s Comic Riffs blog. "They mean more than ever with the way the business is going."

Breen also does the comic strip "Grand Avenue" for United Media.